Meghan M. Biro is a globally recognized Talent Management and HR Tech strategist, digital catalyst, author and speaker. As founder and CEO of TalentCulture and Co-Founder of the #TChat World of Work Community, she has worked with hundreds of companies, from early-stage ventures to global brands like Microsoft, IBM and Google, helping them recruit and empower stellar talent.
She began her recruiting career working on a research team at Yale University and then moved into software technology markets. Meghan has been a guest on numerous radio shows and online forums, and has been a featured speaker at global conferences.
She is the co-author of The Character-Based Leader: Instigating a Revolution of Leadership One Person at a Time, and is a regular contributor at Forbes, Huffington Post and Entrepreneur. Meghan regularly serves on advisory boards for leading HR and technology brands.
Meghan has been voted one of the Top 100 Social Media Power Influencers in 2015 by StatSocial and Forbes, Top 50 Most Valuable Social Media Influencers by General Sentiment, Top 100 on Twitter Business, Leadership, and Tech by Huffington Post, and Top 25 HR Trendsetters by HR Examiner.
Meghan can be reached via email at mbiro@talentculture.com, on Twitter at @TalentCulture and @MeghanMBiro, or on LinkedIn.

5 Leadership Behaviors Loyal Employees Trust

Is any relationship ever completely reciprocal? Not really, because one party always wields more power over the other. This is a human behavior dynamic that is tough to ignore, especially when we look deeper at workplace culture and team dynamics. There are leaders and followers, loved ones and lovers, employers and employees. We might like to think equality, common goals and unquestioned commitment are the norm but it simply doesn’t happen. It’s true in personal life and in the workplace.

I recently spent a weekend at a high school graduation where teachers glowingly described the fairly small class as a group of leaders. Although parents and kids basked in the glow of achievement and praise, it was clear that some in the group were more equal than others, more accomplished, more confident and composed. While the speeches were heartwarming they seemed insufficiently realistic: clearly not all in that class are destined for success, and not all will be leaders. Despite what we say as a society about equality, the best we can offer is what seems like a cop out: the promise of equal opportunity.

Leaders today talk a lot about loyalty, retention, and the business value of empowering employees to be brand ambassadors. Nonetheless, research literature and blogs abound which discuss the erosion of employee loyalty to the workplace, especially among Gen X and Y. The prescriptive leadership and talent management advice runs the gamut, from changes in compensation structures to more flexibility in work schedules, team building and more, all aimed at encouraging employee engagement with the employer’s brand. But the worry persists and with good reason: can the damage inflicted on employee trust by years of layoffs, pay cuts, IPOs and benefit claw-backs be overcome?

Speaking of IPOs and trust, look no further than the recent Facebook news breaks. Zuckerberg may face his biggest challenge yet as CEO when shaping the new Facebook workplace culture “post IPO” - The change in company climate will undoubtedly be reflected in the employees, a reality that Jena McGregor from the Washington Post sums up nicely here and with this quote:

“So how will Zuckerberg manage them? The Wall Street Journal has a great roundup of ideas for the 28-year-old founder. He’ll need to feed these new millionaires’ entrepreneurial mindsets, giving them time and autonomy to work on their own projects. He’ll have to become expert at stroking egos while not setting up cultures that give the lottery winners on staff too much sway. And he’ll need to keep people from checking the stock price, oh, every 10 minutes, and be willing to say goodbye quickly to those who don’t want to stay.”

So, is there a way to increase loyalty and engagement in the workplace? I believe there is, and it requires a near-equal exchange of information about the business’s goals and challenges and a shared sense of the value of work. This true for CEOs and for employees alike. It’s a two-way street of respect and trust.

All great leaders know getting there is the challenge, of course. Here are 5 behaviors for leaders and hiring managers to adopt when struggling to keep employees happy and loyal:

1) Tell the truth. Not everyone is a star. Pick out those with leadership or other valued talent potential and nurture them. This will come back to the business as these individuals, in turn, nurture other workers.

2) Communicate roles and responsibilities. Provide a path to success not only for those with leadership promise but for all employees. Sometimes this will mean difficult changes, but remember the most important skill of a leader: never surprise an employee with bad news. Have a development plan for all, and a get-well plan for those whose performance lags. Make sure everyone knows the plan.

3) Create a workplace culture that values real people relationships. For many employees, workgroup relationships and relationships between managers and workers drive engagement and loyalty more effectively than foosball machines, logo T-shirts, and Thirsty Thursday gatherings.

4) Be fair and open. This does not mean treat everyone equally – it means have transparent processes for managing and leading. Employees are more likely to respond positively to change when the process used to manage change is fair.

5) Model the behaviors you seek. Just as the headmaster at the high school did, accept your responsibility as a leader and act with engagement, commitment and responsibility. Do this every day.

Each of us possesses skills, strengths, talents and flaws. Each of us seeks to belong, to be engaged, to relate to those around us. Loyalty is built on relationships, shared understanding and trust. Engagement and commitment require loyalty, shared goals and fair treatment. Don’t take loyalty and engagement for granted – create a remarkable culture where there are possible and rewarding outcomes of the workplace.

We are only human after all – Every one of us. Every leader. Every brand. Every workplace. Every person.

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Nice article! I would add being transparent about your strengths and weaknesses to this list. Transparency goes a long way, especially when you create strong diversified teams. Being able to admit where you are weaker and a team member is stronger allows each of the unit to feel like they contribute a valuable part to the team, encouraging loyalty and employee satisfaction.

No. The damage is done, period. There is no getting that back. When you have an exemplary evaluation and all you get is 2.25%, what is a person supposed to think of that from a 7 billion dollar company? Really? I have a job and that’s how I look at it. I’m a loyal employee and have been for many years. Why is that? Because the grass is never greener. They’re all alike. I also know that loyalty in the corporate environment is a one way street. I’m there to collect a paycheck. Corporate America has the people right where they want them. Slavery and dependence. One of the reasons we will never have socialized medicine in this country. That way, no one can be independently employed because of the cost of that one thing. It really sucks! How can they get that back? Well, they can start with the 10% annual raises we had years ago. With the new anti this and anti that approach from the right wing (yes, I’m talking of that dirty word, unions), the people will never have anything. Wisconsin voters you have signed our doom, you assholes.

Agree 100% with everything, except with “Is any relationship ever completely reciprocal? Not really, because one party always wields more power over the other”. I believe a company can be driven through what I call “alignment of interests”: that is corporate interests and objectives, owner/bosses and also employees own personal interests which vary depending on age, social position, or simply personal interests (earn a living, make career, have a family, etc). From my point of view, it’s the company leader’s main task to find coincidences among different managed people interests (employees) and consider them to accomplish a business plan or corporate strategy. As long as this happens (communicated and discussed with everyone), motivation can be granted all over the corporation and results come along. This is only possible if we believe we are ALL leaders, mainly of our own life and values, and understanding that when I am choosing a job, it´s just a small step to accomplish my personal objectives in life, where the ONLY leader is myself. With this vision you will find in a company that everyone could consider himself a leader, with a specific role as an employee in the company, but feeling he is valued as a person, leading his own life and respecting his own interests, as long as they are noy against the company and the society interests of course!

Its quite difficult for me to express myself in english as its not my mother language. Thank you for reading my comment.

In my experience, leadership either reflects the following community or the following community reflects the leadership. In a democratic based society, it is often our perception that our leaders reflect us…….not that we are reflective of their values, positions and strategies. Often, this means leaders who are not in sync with their followers will find themselves less leaders and more autocratically designated with minding the structure instead of moving their people forward. A lesson is to be found within this somewhere…………